The Power of Story: How Cahokia Became North America's Greatest City, with Dr. Julie Zimmerman

About this episode

This episode explores the significance of Cahokia Mounds as North America's greatest pre-Columbian city through an interview with Dr. Julie Zimmerman.

Send us Fan Mail Of all the great archaeological sites around the world, I suspect the one near my hometown, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, is among the least appreciated. While the rich floodplain along the Mississippi River south of Alton, Illinois (known as the American Bottom) has a long history of human settlements, around the year 1050 a new community sprung up that would grow into the largest pre-Colombian settlement in North America, what we now call Cahokia Mounds. In this episo...

People in this episode

Host: Dean Klinkenberg

Guest: Dr. Julie Zimmerman

Topics covered

• archaeology
• Cahokia
• pre-Columbian settlement
• history
• Mississippi River
• cultural heritage

Keywords

• Cahokia
• archaeological sites
• pre-Columbian
• Mississippi River
• human settlements
• history
• cultural heritage

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Mississippi River, Alton, Illinois, American Bottom

More episodes of The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast

• The Decades-Long Effort to Tame the Wild Mississippi River: How Engineers Reshaped America's Greatest River · June 10, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Better Safe Than Sorry? My Radical Choice to Trust the World · May 27, 2026 · 29 min
• The River Is Calling — Will You Answer? River Days of Action and National Mississippi River Day 2026 · May 13, 2026 · 58 min
• Lake Pepin’s Legends, Communities, and Future with Michael Anderson · April 29, 2026 · 1h 14m
• After Andersonville: The Sultana and the Cruelest Twist of the Civil War · April 15, 2026 · 1h 20m
• You Can Make It Illegal, But You Can't Make It Unpopular: History of Brothels and Prostitution in Mississippi River Towns · April 1, 2026 · 35 min